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Feldbahn/Agricultural 'box' from Ikea


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After having a little break from the world of modelling I found myself drawn to 009 and the little diesels from Brian Madge. Having bought and assembled one, I must say they are a superb bit of kit. Small, simple belt driven chassis is smooth and well geared coupled with a body that carries enough detail to satisfy!

 

20136179682_7247794dc4_c.jpg009 Brian Madge Ruston 48 by Steve Purves, on Flickr

 

Also whilst browsing the selling sites on Facebook I came across a little 3D printed loco that needed a new home for a respectable price. This tuned out to be a 2A Rail kit, their ‘Mongrel’ body on a life-like chassis. Basic in detail and sadly been printed in WSF, the finish left a lot to be desired (note these are printable in FUD which will remove my above criticism) However, I saw its potential and armed with some handrails and paint I set to it... Still not finished now, I am planning on adding a few more details yet.

 

19523248523_8dc008e425_c.jpg009 Freelance Steam loco by Steve Purves, on Flickr

 

20136178012_38b05aeb0c_c.jpg009 Freelance Steam loco by Steve Purves, on Flickr

 

Right, now on to the layout. Initially I was thinking about some kind of ‘ironstone’ narrow gauge/standard gauge interchange with lots of little locos, and short rakes of tippers filling some 16t mineral wagons. I want to build a ‘quickie’ before going too far down the Narrow gauge route though, so this is where Ikea came in to play. Some of you might know me from my previous APA layouts; the APA being ideal for a ‘quickie’ though is no longer available from Ikea. This is where I found the SKOGSTA. This product is a little flat packed wooden crate, available in a variety of sizes, I opted for the low, long one. £7 well spent.

 

20108324488_dce5e92107_c.jpgIkea Box by Steve Purves, on Flickr

 

The plan:

 

The idea is for a simple inglenook style agricultural/feldbahn type layout, something like a fruit farm or something big enough to warrant a narrow gauge line from the fields to the yard/packing facilities, again simple 4w locomotives and small rakes of wagons being shuffled and shunted just to practice  my entry into the scale.  Here’s a couple of pictures of the constructed box with the little 6w steam loco posed for scale

 

20108331120_e8f1428c53_c.jpgIkea Box built up by Steve Purves, on Flickr

 

19673724414_2984871d73_c.jpgIkea Box built up by Steve Purves, on Flickr

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Thank God. I feared for your sanity until I spotted a couple of N gauge locos in the background of the first shot!

Narrow gauge, hmm? It'll never catch on...

Seriously, good luck with this, will watch with interest.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Steve,

 

Welcome back. The Skogsta crate could be the basis of one of those dreaded coffee table railways.

Just add 4 legs and toughened glass and away you go.

 

I feel a trip to a certain shop coming on. I wonder if the wife needs anything!!!!!

 

Paul 4475

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The Skogsta crate could be the basis of one of those dreaded coffee table railways.

Just add 4 legs and toughened glass and away you go.

Paul 4475

Now there's an idea, I could do with a coffee table in my railway room!

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I am thinking it bears a resemblance to the body of a typical slate wagon, so just needs a chassis and some wheels.

 

Trouble these days is there are too many people trying to do serious narrow gauge layouts when there needs to be some fun and humour. Bring back the rabbit warrens! They are quite often more popular that some of the new layouts. Not forgetting the treacle mine.

 

Anyone remember those live steam OO9 locos a few years ago.

 

Just been having another look, and the taller version at £11 might have more potential, especially with bigger scales.and layouts could be stacked for display. Just need to remove some of the bars on front, and possibly one on sides, so trains can get on and off layout.  A touch short, but it might be possible to fix two together, and still be easy to carry.

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Whenever I see one of these box conversions, I wonder if I could actually buy the wood cheaper myself, and build something to my design, but often that is not the case, unless you have a good wood supplier, who can supply offcuts.

Anyway I am thinking that one end and side could be left off and used to extend the other two sides upwards. A second box could then be altered in same way(mirror image) and attached so open ends are together. Some extra bracing would be required, by the resulting , nearly 4ft, long open box could fit in something better, and still be easy to transport and store. Next time I am passing Ikea I will have to call in. I may still have enough APA boxes to keep me going with some projects where I need to keep the consistency, but something new could use something new. :locomotive:

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Part of the challenge though is keeping within the limited confines of the box. If you are going to extend beyond that then you might as well build the box to fit the layout. Brian Madge's kit is a pleasure to build and runs well for its size.

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I am not extending beyond the box , just joining boxes, and it is a much bigger challenge fitting bigger scale models in this space than OO or OO9 .

Been there done it.

I would want to keep as many of the good design features of the box though. I think it would still keep within the double A3 paper sized challenge size which has been  the size for bigger scale challenges.

In the same challenges, it is only double A4 for smaller scales/gauges. It even things out, but I will always relish a challenge, and have completed many.

 

Having said that , one idea I have is for OO. I could build my own box but that is not fun, and using something like this Ikea box makes it look more interesting, and it should be easier to store and transport.

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